Archive for 'School News'

FIU’s College of Law conferred 184 degrees on its departing Class of 2012 on May 25 at the U.S. Century Bank Arena. Many of the new alumni have already secured positions at major law firms and public interest organizations throughout Miami and the surrounding counties. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who is serving in his fifth term in Congress, was the keynote speaker.

The FIU News team was there to capture all the Polaroid moments – students celebrating and parents beaming with pride.

Check out FIU Facebook to see more photos. Tag yourself and your friends! To download your “FIU grad” photo in higher resolution, go to FIU Flickr.

Read more at news.fiu.edu »

Professor Alejandro Mayagoitia of the Panamerican University (Mexico City) spoke at the College of Law on ”Law and Nobility in Colonial Spanish America.”

Alejandro Mayagoitia received his law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.  He taught Roman law and teaches Mexican legal history and medieval and modern law at the Universidad Panamerica. Alejandro is one of Mexico’s most respected legal historians and genealogists, and he has published over 75 articles, essays, and other academic studies.

He was at FIU to work with the Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza Collection of Cuban Genealogy, a newly acquired collection of books and manuscripts in Special Collections of the Green Library. The collection is made up of over 5,000 volumes and 900 unpublished letters containing genealogy information from Cuba, as well as other Latin American countries and Europe.

MIAMI – The College of Law hosted its Second Annual Art Competition for middle and high school students on Saturday, April 14, 2012. The competition is geared to get young people thinking about concepts like law, freedom, tolerance, and equality. The pieces submitted also help make the College of Law a more visually interesting space, as they are displayed throughout the common areas of the building.

The College of Law began hosting the competition last year and were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the work and the thoughtfulness behind the pieces.  This year’s submissions were equally impressive and it was tough deciding on the winner.  We are thankful for all the submissions and we hope these young artists continue pursuing their dreams.

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MIAMI – Each year colleges and universities across the country recognize the importance of the student work experience during National Student Employment Week. During the week of April 9^th, FIU recognizes these student employees who are seeking their academic degree while gaining invaluable work experience. This year, the College of Law is proud to nominate Brianna “Bri” Rosa for the 2012 award of the Student Employee of the Year.

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MIAMI (March 1, 2012) – Florida International University will pay tribute to distinguished alumni and members of the university community at its 11th annual Torch Awards Gala on Sat., March 3.  The event recognizes the university’s most outstanding alumni and members of the FIU faculty for contributions to their fields, the community and their alma mater.

The Torch Award honors the memory of Senator Ernest R. Graham, the forward-thinking champion who helped to create the university.  This year, the signature social event for the FIU Alumni Association will be held at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, Wells Fargo Center (Met 2), 255 Biscayne Boulevard Way in Miami.  A cocktail reception will start at 6:30 p.m., followed by dinner and the awards presentation at 7:30 p.m.

This year, the College of Law will honor:

Robert Babayi ’81, Attorney, Venable, LLP.

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WHAT: The FIU Law Center for Professionalism and Ethics, in addition to the The Academic Network, Inc., Dade County Bar Association and The PhD Project present the First Annual Diversity Leadership Summit.

WHO:  

Topics will include:

• The Current State of Affirmative Action in Higher Education
• Establishing the Tools of Leadership Through Effective Communication
• The Business Case for Diversity
• Where the Rubber Meets the Road
• Race and Race Relations: Where is the Median?
• Leading the Charge: Diversity at an Organizational Level

WHEN AND WHERE:  Monday, February 6th from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. in the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay.

For more information, please visit http://theacademicnetwork.org/summit.html
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Jeremy Chevres, Dean Acosta, Justice Alito, Judge Marcus, Judge Barkett and Nicolas Greene at the reception following the mock proceedings.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sat as chief justice for FIU’s 9th annual Moot Court Competition

Even seasoned trial lawyers might find themselves intimidated arguing in front of a Supreme Court justice. At FIU’s 9th annual Moot Court Competition, four College of Law students rose to the challenge.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Judge Rosemary Barkett and Judge Stanley Marcus – both from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals – to preside over the final round of oral argument Jan. 26 at the Rafael Diaz-Balart Hall.

In the fictitious case Ernesto Escobar v. United States, the petitioner appealed his conviction for drug smuggling. Escobar’s appeal argued the government unlawfully gathered evidence using a GPS device. The appeal asserted that there is a “reasonable-expectation-of-privacy” standard.

The FIU case was well timed. Earlier in January, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision that law enforcement officers must obtain a search warrant to attach a GPS unit to a suspect’s car to track him. Although similar to the real case, United States v. Jones, the FIU case dealt exclusively with whether the monitoring of such a device would alone violate the Fourth Amendment when no warrant is first obtained.

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MIAMI (February 2, 2012) – Under the supervision of Professor Laverne Pinkney, staff attorney Ricardo Rodriguez ‘10 of the Family and Children Law Clinic  successfully argued a case before the Third District Court of Appeal on behalf of a 12 year old child whose express wishes were to be with her mother.

The clinic argued that the Court must consider the express wishes of a child who is old enough and capable of expressing them. In a decision handed down on February 1, DM and BA vs. DCF, the Court reversed a termination of parental rights holding against the mother (BA) and affirmed as to the father (DM).  The court found no clear and convincing evidence that the rights of BA, a survivor of domestic violence, should be terminated because she was improving with treatment, having positive interactions with her children, and because expert testimony showed that it takes about a year for therapy for domestic violence victims to work.

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WHAT:  Famed trial attorney Roy Black, who has defended the likes of William Kennedy Smith, Rush Limbaugh and Kelsey Grammer, will share stories from his career as part of the FIU College of Law’s inaugural Great Legal Storyteller Series. To be held every February, the series will give law students the opportunity to listen to some of the great legal stories of America from prominent and successful attorneys. These legal leaders will educate, inspire and cultivate the next generation of passionate, principled attorneys. The series is part of the College of Law’s Trial Advocacy Program. 

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FIU Law welcomes Rogelio Perez-Perdomo who will be with the College this semester as our first Latin American Visiting Professor, a position made possible though the Miami Consortium on Latin American and Caribbean Studies. The Consortium is a joint operation of UM and FIU.

Professor Perez-Perdomo studied of law at Universidad Central de Venezuela (1959-64), philosophy and sociology of law at Paris (1964-66), and law at Harvard (1971-12). He holds an LL.M. from Harvard and research doctorate in law from the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He is a Professor of Law and former dean at the Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, and has been a frequent Visiting Professor at Stanford Law School since 1998.

He will teach a seminar, Professional Legal Actors and Latin American Legal Culture, here at the College and deliver a series of public lectures at UM and FIU.

For more information on his series of public lectures “The Professions of Law in Latin America: A Social and Comparative Perspective.”